The passage of time has seen the enactment of ever more stringent regulations by governmental authorities based on the need to control and limit sulfur emissions from vehicle exhaust. This requires the petroleum industry to continually improve and upgrade their refinery processes to decrease the quantity of sulfur present in gasoline. Many countries around the world currently limit the allowable sulfur content to less than 50 ppm, and in some cases, as low as 20 ppm.
In many of the processes employed in the petroleum industry, hydrogen is reacted with organic hydrocarbon feedstocks in order to achieve certain desired objectives. For example, in hydrocracking it is sought to maximize the distillable fractions in oil, or its fractions. In hydrodesulfurization (HDS), the aim is the reduction of the sulfur content.
In the aforementioned processes, hydrogen is reacted with the hydrocarbon in a chemical reactor containing a catalyst. The catalyst enhances the process by increasing the reaction rate and also increasing the selectivity of the desired reaction.
Catalytic desulfurization is a preferred method for the removal of sulfur from hydrocarbons. Generally, catalytic desulfurization takes place at elevated temperature and pressure in the presence of hydrogen. At the elevated temperatures and pressures, catalytic desulfurization can result in the hydrogenation of other compounds, such as for example, olefin compounds, which may be present in the petroleum fraction which is being desulfurized. Hydrogenation of olefin products is undesirable as the olefins play an important role providing higher octane ratings (RON) of the feedstock. Thus, unintentional hydrogenation of olefin compounds during desulfurization may result in a decreased overall octane rating for the feedstock. If there is significant loss of octane rating during the hydrodesulfurization of the hydrocarbon stream, because of saturation of olefin compounds, the octane loss must be compensated for by blending substantial amounts of reformate, isomerate and alkylate into the gasoline fuel. The blending of additional compounds to increase the octane rating is typically expensive and thus detrimental to the overall economy of the refining process.
Additionally, catalytic hydrodesulfurization can result in the formation of hydrogen sulfide as a byproduct. Hydrogen sulfide produced in this manner can recombine with species present in the hydrocarbon feed, and create additional or other sulfur containing species. Olefins are one exemplary species prone to recombination with hydrogen sulfide to generate organic sulfides and thiols. This reformation to produce organic sulfides and thiols can limit the total attainable sulfur content which may be achieved by conventional catalytic desulfurization.
Alumina is a common support material used for catalyst compositions, but has several disadvantages in the desulfurization of petroleum distillates. Alumina, which is acidic, may not be well suited for the preparation of desulfurization catalysts with high loading of active catalytic species (i.e., greater than 10 weight %) for catalytically cracked gasoline. Acidic sites present on the alumina support facilitate the saturation of olefins, which in turn results in the loss of octane rating of gasoline. Additionally, recombination of the olefin with hydrogen sulfide, an inevitable result of hydrode sulfurization, produces organic sulfur compounds. Furthermore, basic species present in the feedstock, such as many nitrogen containing compounds, can bind to acidic sites on the surface of the alumina and the catalyst, thereby limiting the number of surface sites which are available for sulfur compounds for desulfurization. Furthermore, basic species present in the feedstock, such as many nitrogen containing compounds, can bind to acidic sites on the surface of the alumina and the catalyst, thereby limiting the number of surface sites which are available for sulfur compounds for desulfurization. At the same time, nitrogen containing compounds having aromatic rings are easily transformed into coke precursors, resulting in rapid coking of the catalyst. Additionally, high dispersion of the metal is difficult to enhance with an alumina support due to the strong polarity and the limited surface area of the alumina. Exemplary commercially available hydrotreating catalysts employing an alumina support include, but are not limited to, CoMo/AI203, NiMo/AI203, CoMoP/AI203, NiMoP/AI203, CoMoB/AI203, NiMoB/AI203, CoMoPBI Al203, NiMoPB/AI203, NiCoMo/AI203, NiCoMoP/AI203, NiCoMOB/AI203, and NiCoMoPB/AI203, (wherein Co is the element cobalt, Ni is nickel, Mo is molybdenum, P is phosphorous, B is boron and Al is aluminum).
In addition, prior art methods suffer in that the preparation of desulfurization catalysts having high metal loading with high dispersion is generally difficult. For example, many prior art catalysts are prepared by a conventional impregnation method wherein the catalysts are prepared by mixing the support materials with a solution that includes metal compounds, followed by filtration, drying, calcination and activation. However, catalyst particles prepared by this method are generally limited in the amount of metal which can be loaded to the support material with high dispersion, which generally does not exceed approximately 25% by weight of the metal oxide to the support material. Attempts to achieve higher loading of the metal to support materials having a relatively high surface area, such as silicon dioxide, typically result in the formation of aggregates of metallic compounds on the surface of the support. Activated carbon has much higher surface area and weaker polarity than conventional catalyst supports, such as for example, alumina and silica. This provides improved performance in the desulfurization of catalytically cracked gasoline because both olefin saturation and recombination of hydrogen sulfide with the olefin are suppressed over activated carbon support. However, weaker polarity and a relatively high hydrophobicity make activated carbon difficult to load large amount of active metallic species, such as molybdenum oxide.
It can be seen from the foregoing that methods for enhancing the performance of catalysts useful in the removal of sulfur species from petroleum-based products are needed.